McDormand and Washington create an instantly compelling couple, and as she schemes and pushes her husband to unspeakable acts, her Lady Macbeth throws in shades of genuine affection and concern for his mental state. Writer/director Joel Coen and Frances McDormand behind the scenes of The Tragedy of MacbethĪs Lady Macbeth, Frances McDormand - who also played her in 2016 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in a production directed by Daniel Sullivan - has a co-star equal to her formidability. Rather than encouraging his actors to deliver their speeches grandly (Washington has said the on-set mandate was “no ‘stick-up-the-butt’ acting”), Coen saves his biggest theatrical flourishes for gorgeously shot expressionistic sets and sudden explosions of violence and supernatural surprise. While his decision to take that breath and not speak feels like the actor’s choice, it fits with the overall quiet intensity most of the cast bring to their lines, and that feels like director Coen’s choice. ![]() The contrast of casting Washington, an actor of great charm and energetic presence - and then reining him in - creates a powerful tension between actor and role. Shakespeare’s plays are nothing if not studies of contrasts: comedy and tragedy, high-born and low, poetry and prose, and, in this play especially, fair and foul. ![]() That tiny beat of uncertainty signals that one of our most compelling film actors - who commands the screen with such theatrical bravado in roles like Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Fences and the swaggering Alonzo in Training Day - will be holding his considerable power in check to portray Shakespeare’s reluctant yet ambitious tragic hero. ![]() There’s a moment early on, for example, when Denzel Washington’s title character opens his mouth to speak - and then decides not to. The result is a brilliant interpretation that’s my favorite kind of Shakespeare: it combines the artifice of theater with the techniques of film, especially the use of the close-up, where the thinking behind the verse gets as much attention as the verse itself. Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth, now streaming on Apple TV+Ī movie that honors a play’s theatricality: That’s what director Joel Coen said he wanted for The Tragedy of Macbeth, his new adaptation of the Scottish play.
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